Allocation of resources, which may include tangible resources (such as raw materials, component parts, equipment, and labor) or intangible resources (such as processing time and cost allocation), typically poses many challenges in commercial or other enterprises. Given the numerous ways in which available resources may be allocated in connection with activities of an enterprise, and the fact that resource allocation schemes may differ widely as to their efficacy (in terms of their ability to maximize output, profit, or other desired performance measures), complex systems for logistics planning have been developed. Such logistics planning systems have been advantageously used in, for example, manufacturing a product within a factory or other manufacturing environment. In considering a manufacturing process for an item, for example, it may be necessary to account for the materials, components, or other inputs that will be used in assembling, fabricating, processing, synthesizing, or otherwise producing the item. However, prior techniques have been suboptimal in that they have not typically employed intelligent methods to properly order items for consideration by an associated logistics planning system.